TLC 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 183 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 22 2016

(To read a full event review of WWE TLC 2015, click here.)

TLC 2015 occurred at a time when the WWE product was at a pretty low level. A combination of absences for top talent, poor casting in main event situations and generally dull writing meant that TLC was predicted to be a catastrophe of an event. Fortunately, though, the wrestlers delivered on the night, and the show closed with a memorable angle that temporarily reduced the fan hatred towards Roman Reigns, all of which makes this a pretty entertaining wrestling DVD to watch.

The opening three-way tag Ladder match between The New Day, The Lucha Dragons and The Usos widely surpasses expectations, and features an incredible Salida Del Sol by Kalisto which was arguably the most memorable spot of the entire year in WWE. The subsequent Ryback vs. Rusev bout suffers from an uninteresting plot whereby Ryback looks like an idiot for repeatedly falling for Lana's attempts to make out that The Big Guy had injured her. As for Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger: their Chairs match was as good as you could expect, and given the staleness of both men's characters at this point (even though ADR had only returned to WWE two months prior), it's a pleasant surprise, even if the "CM Punk!" chants put a dampener on it.

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WWE TLC 2015

Image Source: F4W Online

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: December 13 2015
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Attendance: 14,903

Christmas can often be a time when high expectations result in an anti-climax, but it can also be a time when minimal hopes result in a pleasant surprise on the day. The latter applied to WWE's Xmas-time PPV event, TLC. On paper, the card wasn't the worst ever assembled, but the lack of star power in recent weeks (for a variety of reasons), a flat build-up and generally lacklustre writing from the WWE creative team all combined to almost make one feel like you were an idiot for actually wanting to see the show. Fortunately, the harshest critics were left with egg (or egg nog, since it's almost Crimbo?) on their faces, as the event delivered several worthwhile matches, a bonkers spot in the opening contest, and a closing scene which might have finally turned Roman Reigns into the next top babyface that WWE desperately wants him to be.

Unfortunately, WWE didn't help itself in the Kick-Off show, or rather with its presentation. After a month in which the company has been savagely buried by many, and with TLC almost annoying fans by its mere existence (fans at the NXT shows in the UK even booed TLC promo videos), you would think that WWE would want to really get fans back on its side from the get-go. Instead, for the second supercard in a row, the live feed cut out for the WWE Network at the beginning of the pre-show, and this time it was almost halfway through the hour-long preview programme before most fans (myself included) were able to see what was going on. That it happened once at Survivor Series was perhaps an accident; twice in a row suggests a major production mishap somewhere. This simply must be remedied, more than any other creative aspect of WWE TV; not only does it spoil one's enjoyment of said shows, but it reduces fan confidence that the feed will work, and with Royal Rumble up next and WrestleMania looming, the last thing WWE needs is an internal error to cause fans to opt out of watching supershows via the Network.

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